Split Unbreakable Glass

So long story short, this one's amazing! Wraith has done it for me. I pretty much see this one as one complete film rather than a trilogy and that's how I'd like to look at it. Although not pitch perfect (nothing is ofc) This one's a great recommend for anyone who's remotely interested in this trilogy and this may as well be the go to version really. Chungs!

A/V Quality
Good quality, especially the Split and Glass footage.

A/V Editing
Very impressive intercutting throughout. I noticed some things but that's inevitable given the source material. A lot of fade to blacks, but I'm unsure if there's a better way of moving between timelines. The A/V editing is a major selling point here as it allows for the narrative rearrangement.

Narrative
The story being told is essentially the same as the original trilogy but in an integrated manner, with the Split and Unbreakable stories being told in parallel during the first half, followed by Glass in the second half, but with a lot of jumping back and forth between the three films throughout. A major reveal from Unbreakable is pushed towards the end of Glass which keeps things interesting. Having seen the originals, I was able to easily keep track of the narrative. I believe someone unfamiliar with the work would also be able to understand the narrative fairly well, especially if you pay attention, so it certainly succeeds in that aspect. I do think adding a halfway mark at around the 1hr 45 mins, when the film transitions from the Split/Unbreakable arc to the Glass arc would be beneficial, as 3hr 30 mins is too long for a feature film in one sitting.

Enjoyment
I did enjoy watching this. Personally, I think Unbreakable is the strongest of the trilogy, and those parts of the edit remain the strongest. Note that the tone of this edit matches more with the franticness of Split & Glass rather than the solemn reflection of Unbreakable. It keeps a good pace despite a long runtime so it's not a hard watch.

Conclusion
All in all, great job by Wraith. Split Unbreakable Glass, whilst ultimately following the same plot, gives a unique spin on these films, and is definitely worth a watch for those who enjoyed the originals.

(MAJOR SPOILERS!)


Eastrail 177 trilogy...god what a glorious mess.

Unbreakable. An amazing story about belief and doubt. Ultimately ending in triumph.

Split. A...questionable story/connection about belief and doubt. Ending in...a triumph for the hordes and arguably for Casey.

Glass. It's a half-amazing Half atrocious story about belief and doubt. Unfortunately ending on a tragic but hopeful note.

If you see it as a whole. It feels like one giant mess. Split is a point of connection between Unbreakable and Glass. And Glass feels more like a Split sequel than being a bit of both. Making everyone question why they brought David Dunn from the first place just to- kill him OFF IN A FREAKING PUDDLE-

But the idea it proposes is extremely unique. Especially considering it as a superhero trilogy. The trilogy explores the reason why we cling to faith, and how it sometimes could change the destination of our lives forever. The ending in my opinion was partially brilliant as well. The idea of all three of these movies simply being origin stories…is interesting and brilliant!

So I’ve wondered.

-Is there any way to tie these movies into one narrative structure?-

And....this fan edit, I thought, could be a key to that answer.

Made by Wraith. Split Unbreakable Glass.



Audio/Video Quality.

First of all, How can I describe it?... Oh yeah.

The visual looks like an amazing cake that I want to go and swallow the entire thing. Enough said. Like I never expected this great of a conversion from the actual movie format to the copied format (If that's even the tactic Wraith used.)

I was worried that Unbreakable’s old frame would distract me from being with clearly new frames of Split and Glass. But considering Unbreakable is supposed to be a form of a flashback...it kinda helped the experience as well!

There is ONLY ONE FLAW. (HOW IS THAT EVEN-)

Is at the scene where Mr. Glass and the Beast have a conversation in the surgery room. The aspect ratio increases a little bit…(2:51:00)? Except for that, it is pretty much perfect. Bravo man. Bravo.



Visual Editing

A crucial part of every movie. If the editing is bad. If the editing cannot convey the story in a good way- it becomes another bad movie. And the editing of this film....had some misses...AND MANY HITS!

Let’s get the flaws out of the way first shall we? The weakest scenes for me:

1. Casey’s stand against the Beast intercut with her flashback to the uncle. (1:36:21~1:37:00)
2. 1:44:44~1:54:00

I get the reason why they are edited the way they were....but it didn’t work for me.

Both of them are the turning point for the characters….and maybe it distracted me a little bit by having a continuous intersection with the past and the future.

For Casey’s case. In this intense scene- when it suddenly starts cutting to a shot of her head on the wall- An reversed footage of Casey with a shotgun took me out of the scene.

For David’s case. It starts with the deleted scene of Glass unexpectedly melded together with the ending scene of Split. Still stock image of the city….and two music playing at once. David’s coffee scene does not match the continuity. And it gets worse with tense scenes of David searching for the Horde, getting distracted by the triumphant tone of the Unbreakable’s climax. To me at least. They didn't work at all.

This was when I thought. Yikes- is this where this edit starts to decline?

Okay then.

LET'S GET INTO SCENES I DID LIKE!

ELIJAH PRICE. (0:03:40~0:14:25)
DAVID DUNN (0:24:26~0:38:00)
THE HORDE (0:38:01~0:47:17)
Mr. GLASS (0:47:18~0:57:00)
Pretty much every single moment since the Dr. ELLIE STAPLE chapter began (1:58:00~3:25:10)

For ELIJAH’s case. What a perfect introduction to his character man….beginning with the opening of Unbreakable. The Audience gains the information that his bone is very weak. Connecting to the scene where Ms. Elijah introduces the biggest part of his character -being a mistake.- Before the audience can wonder how it would feel to live like him. Boom. Straight cut to the amusement park scene, and after the end of the scene, cut to another Unbreakable scene. Mwah. The connection between these scenes is his broken arm. Implying that this poor soul had gone through those circumstances over and over again. And it is flawless. And ending the introduction with showing how his obsession with comics started! By a mere 11 minutes, I was invested in ELIJAH’s character. Bravo.

For DAVID’s case. Another great introduction to the character. Establishing shot to audio of David’s opening of the mailbox (Just amazing). He is all alone. Seems sad. And with Audry’s introduction. It delivers a very natural connection to the past A.K.A training scene. At first, I was worried that his characteristics would be skipped (except for that slight glimpse of his desires for new love and giving a funny look at a little girl). However, everything snapped into me as David mentioned the concept of -Sadness in the morning.- (0:37:17~0:37:35) Then it hit me. Oh, God. Wraith just excellently summarized his character in one sentence. And rest of the implications were simply a build-up to this reveal. Yet again. Bravo.

For HORDE’s case. I was skeptical about including Split in the beginning. Because I liked the Unbreakable plot line but not this plotline. Till this part...at least. Sets up Hedwig and shows Casey’s potential as a survivor. After Casey fails to convince Hedwig….it shows the flashback sequence to his uncle. And I’ve noticed, whenever the threat of being killed was getting closer and closer….the flashback scene revealed more and more as well. Amazing way of slowly revealing how fucked up her childhood was and a great symbolism of a -Beast- coming to get her. And cutting straight to Patrica’s sandwich scene. Great. Keep the tension going! The tension rises to its top….as Dennis mentions the -Beast.- The drawing of the Beast. Slow fade out. Me saying genuine -Oh shit.- Yet again. Bravo.

For Mr. GLASS’s case. It plays out like a normal stadium scene in Unbreakable with a minor change of David seeing the gun rather than just feeling it. Honestly...I thought that was not a good choice. Keeping it subtle could’ve been nice…..then the stair scene. It does not reveal the presence of a silver gun. HECK YEAH. Much more interesting now! Now the sense of doubt seeps into my mind- was the gun there? Or was David just imagining he had a gun. Is he mad? Just- BRAVO!

For the Third Act’s case. It feels like Glass. But more tightly paced. It has so many chapters I adore it’s hard to choose….so many great moments. Like when Joseph is leaving the facility, flashback to the train crash on the news. And having a gun scene of Unbreakable during the conversation scene. Keeping it tense once more. Keeping the deleted scene of ELIJAH’s secret smile at Ms. ELIJAH shows he DOES have a plan! Keeping the TENSION! And...the trinity was my absolute favorite out of all the chapters. It at least to me felt like a thematic climax. The literal battle between our protagonist’s belief and Staple’s doubt. Unraveling some of the mysteries. The scene is mostly the same as Glass’s original version...but now it feels more powerful. And love the inclusion of the scene -Action Comics 1- and cutting straight into David’s interrogation. Brilliant. And the chapter Mastermind….again feels like an answer to the battle that was throughout the entire film. Yes. They are real. But it came at a great cause. Adding more moral complexity to the battle! And when it shows the time DAVID lifted multiple paints at the metal door break down scene….just visually implies David’s thought. -Just think of a time I lifted a paint….I can do this.- BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO!


Audio Editing

It was pretty good...for the most part. There were several occasions when two pieces of music converged together creating this weird mixture of emotions- especially at David’s coffee shop scene.

But mostly it was pretty great!



Narrative

Do you know how satisfying it feels to finish a puzzle? This movie’s narrative felt like solving a puzzle. Solving pieces of thematic puzzles sprinkled throughout the Eastrail 177 trilogy- and piecing all of them back together.

The first act introduces us to three different yet common characters. First ELIJAH. Then KEVIN. Lastly DAVID. All of them have a common trait of being broken internally. And these orders of the introduction seem pretty intentional for me. By placing ELIJAH’s tragic story first it hooks us in the story emotionally. Now we are somewhat emotional because it uses the chance to quickly introduce another character and introduces the tone of the film, which is a thriller of course. And all of them culminate with DAVID’s chapter, introducing the idea of the story. -How can they no longer feel sadness after waking up?- Mr. Glass. Or the film suggests that the belief in superpower is the answer to it. But two seeds of doubt keep the audience away from completely buying into the concept. One. Elijah not seeing a silver gun, logically making us not believe this superpower nonsense. Two. Horde’s horrible actions SUMMON these -superhuman abilities,- morally making us deny this concept of the superpower.

Brilliant placements of the scenes.

The second act now breaks the ice and introduces YES THEY DO HAVE SUPERPOWER. But quickly asks another question…is that truly a good thing? The reason for BEAST’s usage of powers first is to plant another seed of moral doubt and skepticism. Then showing the after effect, Casey’s awakening pushes the idea -No! Superpowers can help! It brings good out of people!- And it continues with David’s usage of power. Two ideas. Two ideas of how this power is used are introduced. Now. They fight. Brilliant. Showing off two different ways of coping mechanism duking it out to the death….then.

As soon as the GLASS part. Which is chapter Dr. ELLIE STAPLE starts. In my opinion. We just stepped into a third act. Where these beliefs are tested by Dr. Staple. With dozens….DOZENS of seeds of doubts thrown at the audiences like a time bomb. My brain was so….so twisted at this section. EVEN IF I KNEW THEY ARE SUPERHEROES.

The ending….could’ve been better. But I like it ends on an ambiguous note. Because the twist of Mr. GLASS’s true plan wasn’t shoved down our throat like the movie….we can think about the ending. Did their powers get revealed to the world? Or is it another fantasy of Mr. GLASS? Is it the truth? Or another coping mechanism to fight the impending sadness of death. Planting the seeds of doubt. To the very end.




Enjoyment

Considering it is 3 hours and 30 minutes of content.

It sure did feel like 2 hours!

I did feel a little sleepy at the ending fight- but that was probably due to it being like midnight.

So yeah. I did enjoy it!


CONCLUSION

I’m going to end this long review with a one-sentence review I wrote for my watch movie list.

Wraith’s Eastrail 177 (Split Unbreakable Glass Fan Edit)-
7~7.5/10
Flawed in many ways….but an impressive storytelling about belief. And how they can change in many ways…good or evil….but at least there will be more people believing in themselves. Too late now.

Thanks for reading!

And Wraith!

You were spectacular.

REJOICEEEEE! Fan editors are more evolved…..Rejoice.

This went down very smooth. Normally a movie that I know to be nearly 4 hours I plan to watch in at least 2 parts, but once I started this one I couldn't look away.

I'll admit I am a big fan of this trilogy, even though there are some aspects of Glass that were mildly irritating. The improved context in this edit solves that.

The edits were clean. Didn't notice any issues, admittedly my untrained eye can be very forgiving in this regard. I was never jarred by a cut.

Thanks Wraith for another fun watch as I was unlikely to rewatch the whole trilogy in it's previous form any time soon!

What I love about this fan edit is it helped me appreciate a story that I already appreciated. I love the M. Night trilogy and the surprise at the end of Split that it actually was a trilogy. This surprise connection is not a surprise in this fan edit. Framing techniques are used by Wraith to tell a narrative through more of a flashback structure. We know all three stories are connected at the beginning and this brings about a feeling of tense inevitability. I was concerned that the tonal differences of the three movies would be jarring when put side by side; however, the tone shifts only added to the story. As much as I love the slow burn of Unbreakable having it juxtaposed with the more intense Split added to the intensity and also broke up some of the formulaic elements of Glass. Wraith took a well-crafted trilogy and told his own well-crafted single film.